one dead and 30 injured by a car bomb in front of a building belonging to Noboa’s family

The violence is becoming chronic in Ecuador, which has been experiencing for months an increase in social protests against the Government of Daniel Noboa and in homicides, with more than 4,600 in the first half of 2025, almost double that of the previous year.

Violent acts are multiplying throughout the country and escalating at high speed. So much so that this Tuesday one person has died and more than 30 have been injured after a car bomb explosion outside a shopping center and a President Noboa’s family office building, located in the financial center of Guayaquilthe most populated city in Ecuador.

The deceased is a taxi driver and among the injured there are two people admitted to a hospital.

This is the second vehicle that explodes in Guayaquil in less than a month. On September 26, another car was detonated outside the Guayaquil Regional Prison, although on that occasion neither injuries nor deaths were recorded.

In addition, on October 9, the Police deactivated explosives attached to a gas cylinder found in a vehicle parked outside the Litoral Penitentiary, the most populated and dangerous prison in the country.

On this occasion, the explosion was so strong that it caused the windows of some of the surrounding offices and the shopping center to be destroyed.

Added to all this are the various alleged assassination attempts on President Daniel Noboa. On at least three occasions in recent weeks, his presidential vehicle and the convoy that accompanies him have been attacked with stone throwings. A dozen people have been arrested for these attacks and are accused of terrorism.

The reason for the protests

Ehe trigger of these weeks of violence are the protests of the indigenous people of Ecuador over the elimination, on September 12, of the diesel subsidy, which raised from 1.8 to 2.8 the price of the gallon (3.78 liters) of that fuel.

The indigenous people demand that the subsidy be restored, but also that the value added tax (VAT) is lowered from 15% to 12%. Furthermore, they have incorporated into their speech the refusal to referendum scheduled for next November 16, in which questions will be asked about the establishment of a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution.

To this we must add that Ecuador has been living since 2024 under a “internal armed conflict” declared by Noboa to fight against criminal gangs, whom he began to call “terrorists”, and who are attributed with the escalation of violence that the Andean country is experiencing in recent years, which has placed it at the head of the homicide rate in Latin America.

This situation has worsened in 2025, since in the first half of this year the country registered 4,619 homicides47% more than in the same period in 2024, when 3,143 murders were recorded.